Enterprise awaits
Posted on December 9, 2009
Filed Under Blog, Engineering Humour, Space
Oh, my word, she is lovely indeed.
(Virgin Galactic on Flickr)
I’m glad to know that Burt Rutan echoes some concerns that are similar to my own though.
Branson must know that you have to give your customers something to look forward to – hence yesterday’s roll-out. If Rutan had had his way, however, no one would have seen SpaceShipTwo until it was ready to take passengers into space. “It’s just an unhelpful distraction and unwanted pressure,” he says.
So when will the spacecraft be ready? “This is a research project, so we don’t have timetables. I can’t tell you how far off we are, but it’s not complete yet,” he says.
This is something I often struggle with – the engineering demands and requirements, and the completely separate (and often – but not always – incompatible) demands of marketing and business.
I often refer to myself as a “conservative engineer” – I always want more data, more time to test, more time to develop. Unfortunately such niceties are often left behind with real-world timetables and commercial imperatives.
Even in an academic environment – the research I’m conducting at Imperial, as an example – the constraint is there to deliver to some arbitrary or artificial schedule. Not that I’m complaining – such is the way the world works, and the deliverables and deadlines imposed ensure that work is accomplished in a timely (and useful!) manner.
But mind you, Rutan’s last line resonates with me – an open ended timetable with secure backing behind does seem rather nice. Even if you occasionally have to stage lightshows in the Mojave.
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